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Facing a break-up, the West African bloc drops the sanctions with which it was pressuring the Sahel putschists to restore civil rule, Playing on their popular support on West Africa's streets amid growing dissent, the Sahel's putschist regimes have exposed the weakness of the leaders of the Economic Community of West African States (Ecowas).
Double standards on governance rules are straining the credibility of the Ecowas bloc, Facing multiple challenges to their authority, West African leaders are trying to dampen down what seem to be mutually reinforcing crises for their regional organisation. On 28 January came the move by the juntas in Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger to quit the Economic Community of West African States (Ecowas), dealing it the heaviest institutional blow since its foundation in 1975.
As the security threats multiply and international troops are forced out, the military rulers in the Sahel have equivocated about their commitments to restoring civilian rule , The promise of electoral contests to restore constitutional and nominally civilian rule will be a key issue across much of West and West-Central Africa this year, and particularly in the continuing battle of wills between Sahelian military regimes and the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS).
Beset by jihadist insurgents, the juntas in Mali and Burkina Faso are shakier than Guinea – but none offer long-term answers to their countries' problems, The military juntas running Mali, Guinea, and Burkina Faso – in place since August 2020, September 2021, and January 2022 respectively – are set, according to their own timetables, for transition to what the Economic Community of West African States (Ecowas) calls 'constitutional rule' between mid-2024 and early 2025.
, Thirteen years to the day after the Conakry stadium massacre that left 157 people dead, the trial officially opened against those held responsible. Three men the United Nations had identified as the main culprits are all in the dock, together with nine others. During the first hearings on 10 October, Colonel Moussa Tiegboro Camara denied any wrongdoing and instead accused Aboubacar Sidiki 'Toumba' Diakité, at the time the head of the presidential guard, of having been the main perpetrator. Diakité will appear later.